The question of price and confidence in dollars for the US
interesting news from the other side of the world: american fleet started receiving weapon new generation against unmanned aerial vehicles. Apparently, the slaps received in the Red Sea from the Houthis did their job, and the additional armament of American ships began urgently.
A newly released image of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Bainbridge clearly shows the ship's new Coyote drone interceptor launchers. Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy announced that destroyers assigned to escort the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford would be armed with countermeasure systems drones from Raytheon "Coyote" and/or Anduril "Roadrunner-M".
Besides the fact that Coyote and Roadrunner-M are cheaper than traditional missiles class "surface-to-air", they have a loitering function, which allows them to more effectively counteract approaching unmanned aerial vehicles. The idea is good. An anti-drone munition that meets an enemy UAV as it approaches the target area is quite effective, even if you look at it with bias.
The U.S. Navy has released a photo of the USS Bainbridge sailing in the Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece, taken July 27, 2025. The ship is one of three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers currently assigned to the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, along with sister ships USS Winston S. Churchill and USS Mitchell. The Winston S. Churchill serves as the strike group’s air defense commander, a role that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are increasingly taking on as the fleet of aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers dwindles.
The destroyer USS Bainbridge in the Ionian Sea, July 27, 2025. A new drone interceptor launcher is visible on the aft superstructure.
The new drone interceptor launchers are mounted on the port side of Bainbridge's aft superstructure adjacent to the aft Mk 41 vertical launch system (VLS).
This image of the ship leaving port in June 2025 shows the new Bainbridge drone interceptor launchers, but they are partially obscured by personnel on deck.
A close-up of the launchers in a photo taken in June 2025.
Further examination of other photographs of the Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group released by the Navy since its current deployment began in June reveals the same launcher aboard the Winston S. Churchill. There is a possibility that the Mitcher also has one, albeit an older version of the Arleigh Burke, while the Bainbridge and Winston S. Churchill are newer IIA variants, but it appears that the introduction of new countermeasure capabilities drones Applies to all Arleigh Burke variants.
USS Winston S. Churchill transits the Adriatic Sea on July 29, 2025
A close-up of the new launchers on the destroyer Winston S. Churchill
All Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are equipped with Mk 41 VLS launchers, but with varying numbers of launch cells depending on the model. They can be loaded with a variety of surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, including the Standard Missile (SM), Enhanced Sea Sparrow (ESSM), and Tomahawk missiles.
Some versions have additional launchers for Harpoon or Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship cruise missiles. Depending on the specific version, Arleigh Burke ships are equipped with RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launchers or 20mm Vulcan cannons mounted on Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS), or in some cases both, to defend against air threats, including drones.
The US Navy is currently replacing the Phalanx on all of its destroyers with RAM launchers. The 5-inch gun in the turret on the bow of each destroyer can also be used against air and surface targets, but the larger caliber is becoming increasingly questionable in terms of effectiveness.
The launchers shown in the photographs of Bainbridge and Winston S. Churchill are clearly similar to existing land-based launchers for the Coyote Block 2.
Comparison of the launchers on the USS Bainbridge (left) and the land-based Coyote Block 2 launcher
To date, Anduril has only demonstrated a box-type “nest” for the Roadrunner-M, which launches the interceptor vertically, as shown in the video. Launchers matching this design are not visible, at least at first glance, in available photographs of any of the destroyers assigned to the Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
So what's inside these launchers?
The Coyote Block 2 and Roadrunner-M are drone-like jet interceptors with varying degrees of autonomy. Both interceptors must be targeted at an object or a general kill zone (if detonating at a certain distance from the target) using various sensors before their onboard guidance systems take over.
The U.S. Army has been using the Coyote Block 2 for years as part of its LIDS (Low, Slow, and Unmanned Aircraft Defense System), which comes in both mobile and fixed-wing configurations. The Army has deployed LIDS systems in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and used them in combat in at least some of those regions. Newly released images suggest that the U.S. Air Force has also begun operating a fixed-wing version of the LIDS.
It should be noted that the US Army and Marine Corps are quite satisfied with the results of operating anti-drone systems and even plan to significantly increase their arsenal of Coyote interceptor drones, launchers and radars for them in the next five years. According to department representatives, they want to buy 6000 Block 2 jet drones, which carry a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, and another 700 Block 3 drones, which use some kind of “non-kinetic” payload, which has not yet been widely announced.
The U.S. Army disclosed details of its Coyote procurement plans for fiscal years 2025–2029 in a sole-source contract award notice to Raytheon released earlier this month. In addition to the Block 2 and Block 3 interceptors, the Army plans to acquire 252 fixed launchers, 52 mobile launchers, 118 fixed Ku-band radars, and 33 vehicle-mounted radars. As part of the deal, Raytheon will also provide maintenance and repair support for the Coyote systems both in the United States and around the world.
Members of the U.S. Air Force's 332nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron train with the Coyote counter-drone system. 2025.
US Special Forces are known to use the Roadrunner-M in a ground configuration, although details on its use are limited to date. A large order by the US military for additional Roadrunner-M systems last year indicates that the system is expanding its use.
As noted, a key advantage of the Coyote and Roadrunner-M is their ability to remain in a standby mode while in flight. This provides additional flexibility to task, cancel, and re-task in real time in response to sudden changes in the tactical environment. They can also be launched preemptively to combat potential threats.
The Roadrunner-M was specifically designed with this deployment model in mind, and has the added capability to recover, refuel, and re-launch. These are capabilities that traditional surface-to-air missiles simply do not have and that are currently unavailable to naval crews.
The capabilities offered by the Coyote Block 2 and Roadrunner-M are important for warships, given their limitations both in terms of the size of the ammunition carried (not critical, modern ships have many launch cells) and in terms of the ability to quickly reload during combat operations (very critical). The latter is indeed very important for ships, as the practice of combat operations with the Houthis has shown. It is precisely by overloading and discharging the systems Defense ships participating in the operation, the Houthis calmly launched their missiles into a tanker and dry cargo ships.
The Navy is working separately to implement new at-sea reload capabilities, in large part because of lessons learned from shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in and around the Red Sea and destroying Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. The experience fighting Houthi drones was a major reason for installing new counter-drone systems on the destroyers of the Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group.
In fact, UAVs as a new type of weapon did not appear yesterday. But in recent years, a huge leap forward and upward has been made, so the fact that the US Navy has already recognized the threat and is beginning to develop methods of counteraction is normal.
As mentioned, the Coyote Block 2 and Roadrunner-M have a huge added benefit: they are a cheaper means of defending against drones than existing ship-based surface-to-air missiles.
A single Coyote Block 2 reportedly costs about $100. Anduril said each Roadrunner-M costs between $000 and $150, depending on what’s inside. By comparison, the SM-250 Block IIIC, the primary air defense weapon for the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, has an average unit cost of about $000 million, according to the service’s fiscal year 2 budget request. The estimated price of a single ESSM, another air defense weapon on U.S. warships, is about $2 million per unit.
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney fires an SM-2 missile at a Houthi target in October 2023.
The need to add different types of drones, including those capable of operating in swarms, to Navy ships to provide additional layers of defense, as well as to enhance strike, electronic warfare, intelligence gathering, and networking capabilities, has been discussed extensively in recent years.
In reality, no country in the world can afford to destroy drones worth $50 to $100 with missiles costing 10 to 20 times more on a mass scale. Given that missiles tend to miss the stealthy plastic drones, the cost of destroying the latter could increase several times.
Whether the Coyote Block 2 and/or Roadrunner-M launchers will become standard issue on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers or other Navy ships is unknown, though it is believed they will be. The Navy has tested at least one or both of these systems on two other Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the Jason Dunham and The Sullivans, and installation of the launchers has begun, if not in large numbers, but will continue, according to Naval News.
The Navy is separately developing a number of other capabilities to enhance the air and missile defenses of its surface ships, including new directed-energy weapons, electronic warfare suites, and advanced network decoys. The question is how quickly and effectively the systems can be developed.
Lockheed Martin is also offering launchers for the AGM-179 Air-to-Surface Missile (JAGM), which can be used as a surface-to-air missile to supplement the destroyers’ arsenal. The company showed models with JAGM launchers located in the same location on the aft superstructure where the Bainbridge and Winston S. Churchill now have new anti-drone capabilities. At least some of the Navy’s Freedom-class littoral combat ships (LCSs) are now capable of engaging drones as well as surface threats with the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire millimeter-wave radar-guided missile, one of the weapons that JAGM is set to eventually supplant as a ship’s weapon.
A close-up view of the JAGM launchers on a model of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
Indeed, who, if not the United States, should start a new round of the arms race? In principle, this is a classic of the genre - the United States comes up with something new, the whole world begins to study and create its own. This was the case with atomic and nuclear weapons, missiles, nuclear submarines, and so on.
But in terms of attack drones and countermeasures, things are not going so well, although the American sailors have gained excellent experience in fighting various devices. Hundreds of millions flew into the hot sky of the Red Sea and eventually flew away. And the ships returned to their bases. True, the confrontation with the Houthis did not calm the latter down much, but the law enforcers from among the European NATO countries have certainly calmed down. At least the Germans and Danes, whose ships returned empty of ammunition from the campaign, will definitely not decide to send their ships to that region again anytime soon. There is no money.
Of course, sooner or later, but a cheap opponent to a cheap means of destruction was bound to appear in almost any country that plans military actions. We are not talking about Russia here, we have everything quite decent with developments, we have cheap small-sized missiles, and interceptor drones have begun to be mass-produced. It is clear that all this will also go to our fleet and get a residence permit.
In general, a new stage of development of unmanned weapons has begun. The only question is efficiency and price, because if the Americans are more or less decent with the former, then in the battle with price the Americans are constantly losing.
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